The Civic Initiative for a Clean Parliament (ICPC), which includes a number of civil society organizations, announced that it won four cases initiated by politicians in the election campaign of 2010. The trials lasted for three years. Before the elections, the ICPC produced a brochure titled “Know your candidate”, which was to be distributed to Moldova’s settlements. It contained information about the violations committed by the candidates for a seat in Parliament. Following complaints from politicians, a court sequestrated all the about 200,000 brochures and they couldn’t be distributed.
In a news conference at IPN, Petru Macovei, director of the Association of Independent Press, said the member organizations of the ICPC were sued by the PCRM, which entered the Blacklist with 22 candidates, the PDM – with two candidates, and by former ICT Minister Alexandru Oleinic, who ran on the list of the AMN, and Stefan Uratu, a candidate on the list of the PL. At that moment, in 2010, there was a legal precedent as the ICPC won the case started by Ion Prisacaru, who was a candidate of the PSD in the July 29, 2009 elections.
Director of the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption Galina Bostan said the last hearing with the parties has been closed this November, by a decision of the Supreme Court of Justice. Galina Bostan said she attended over 100 hearings. “The parties achieved their goal. They blocked the circulation of information,” said the civil society representative. According to her, it would have been right if the courts had taken a definitive decision during the election campaign, not in three years.
The head of the Journalistic Investigations Center Cornelia Cozonac said the politicians didn’t want information that could have affected their image to be made public and thus obtained the blocking of the distribution of brochures. “But it is a victory for civil society and for the mass media and we will be able to speak about politicians’ mistakes in the next elections,” she stated. The civil society representatives said they will monitor the activities of candidates in the ordinary parliamentary elections of 2014, but the information will be probably made public in a different way.
As to damages, the civil society representatives said that they will not ask for money so as not to diminish the financial possibilities of the parties, even if one of the plaintiffs, Alexandru Oleinic, claimed damages of 1 million lei from the ICPC.
The Civic Initiative for a Clean Parliament was constituted in 2009 by a group of NGOs to monitor the integrity of the candidates included in parties’ lists for the legislative elections.
